Personal interest or national interest

Monday, July 09, 2012 - Let me say to begin with that out of 37 ½ years in the Foreign Service , I was posted abroad for 31 years even in some countries Pakistanis love to settle down in like in Canada, Middle East , South East Asia I have no foreign passport, nor I have any bank account abroad, nor property any where abroad. Nor my highly qualified children from top universities in science and technology are overseas. I did not allow them to settle abroad.

The debate on Pakistanis with two-Nationalities is actually on allowing super rich to become members of Pakistani legislatures, provincial assemblies, National Assembly, Senate and be appointed Ministers etc. Granting voting rights to Overseas Pakistani is not under debate here. The overseas Pakistani is mostly from the working class and goes overseas for earning and not to enjoy life to get his children educated in American or British Universities, to buy buildings there, have the legal cover to keep bank accounts in foreign banks mostly of illegal earnings and /or by remitting Pakistani currency. Pakistani currency has been falling so fast from the time PPP Government came into power that from Rs 60 to a dollar it has gone down to Rs 95 to a dollar and loose talk has it that it may go much more even over Rs 100 to a dollar.

So you can have a rich person as a Prime Minister, Minister whose children are being educated , he has a house abroad, bank balance property abroad, his wife and family off and on sojourning abroad . and in time of any inquiry he can just fly to his sanctuary. No poor man living abroad can afford to contest elections in Pakistan. Only a rich can find place among his brother rich to become minister.

Understand clearly that the privilege to be a Minister etc for an over seas Pakistani is only factually for a super rich. Make no mistake about it. It is a device for the Super rich who can have a foot here and another in a foreign country. Let no one fool the working , even an ordinary working expatriate to be beneficial of this privilege to have one foot in Pakistan and the other foot abroad. Only a naïve can believe that this is possible for a normal Pakistani expatriate.

But this is only an important objection but the most important objection relates to passing of national secrets to foreign powers. In foreign services of countries properly constituted a diplomat is not allowed to marry a foreign lady lest she can knowingly or not knowingly become source of secret information to her country of origin and in any case the diplomat is not poster to the country of his wife’s origin. What will you say if the Pakistani of dual nationality is a minister and has sworn allegiance to a foreign country, Now if he is pressurized to give information on what the Cabinet discussed , what is his ministry doing on a certain matter ‘ or let us say that like in 1965 when US applied sanctions or embargo of arms on Pakistan , it was searching for alternative sources of supply of arms and spares for its air crafts a foreign intelligence agency asked a Pakistani Minister of dual nationality to supply information on this matter can he refuse? Or supposing a foreign government asked a Pak minister to give full information on Pak China nuclear cooperation will he or can he refuse ? Under compulsion of circumstances to settle abroad is a different thing from having a safe haven to have one foot in Pakistan and one foot abroad. In a way Iqbal’s couplet “ Ayaen gye ghussal Kabul sey kafan Japan sey. Who said Do tangi chhor dey yek rang ho ja, That humiliating era of importing Prime Minister and ministers must come to an end In this utilitarian times what is important Personal interest or national interest. L’Etat ce moi.

But the point is what would Madame Tussaud’s House of Wax in beautiful Islamabad surrounding will decide. Many of these wax figures are standing on two stools I must take this opportunity to condemn in the strongest terms the sitting on the fence attitude of TV channels on a matter of human misery that is the young doctors strike caused to the poor suffering humanity. There were two aspects of the strike, the young doctors demands on which I have nothing to say one way or the other. It is their callous attitude towards the poor suffering humanity that should have been condemned. Even if my own daughter or son was in such a situation I would have strongly condemned the use of human misery as the stick in their bargaining. No. the two aspects of the strike are not to be confused Human misery is above politics in personal interests..

The other event this week was the end of the farcical drama over NATO supply through Pakistan. Why was the tempo so raised, the matter discussed in the Parliament and such theatrical attitudes were adopted if our authorities had to have such a climb down. This was most unpardonable climb down and what more the rate per truck for use of roads in transit to Afghanistan is so funny that these days a beggar does not accept that amount. Any way it was a funny climb don and a farce, Let me remind the Government of certain axioms in diplomacy: Do to day what you will be compelled tomorrow. This was the advice given to diplomats by Talleyrand the creator of Map of Europe after Vienna Conference in 1815. There is a similar saying in Persian Chera kaey kunad aqil ke baz ayed pashimani. Why a wise man do a thing he does but which in the end causes loss of face. And another Arabic saying “Do not become so rigid that somebody breaks you and do not become so soft that somebody squeezes you” These are figurative advices but in diplomacy useful to remember. There was another which the British administration used in India on tribal areas. If we have shown our teeth we must bite. This is an old diplomats axiom.